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SATURDAY NIGHT THOUGHTS 
IN LENT 



Saturday Night Thoughts 
In Lent 



BY 

OLIVIA EGLESTON PHELPS STOKES 



Reprinted from the 
Redlands Daily Facts 
Redlands, California 




THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS 
BOSTON, MASS. 



* 



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Copyright, 1922, 
By OLIVIA E. PHELPS STOKES 



Printed in the United States of America 



THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS 
BOSTON, MASS. 



DEC 15 '22 

'C1A682423 



t 



Dear Lord and Father of mankind, 

Forgive our foolish ways! 
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind, 
In purer lives Thy service find, 

In deeper reverence, praise. 

In simple trust like theirs who heard, 

Beside the Syrian sea, 
The gracious calling of the Lord, 
Let us, like them, without a word, 

Rise up and follow Thee. 

JOHN G. WHITTffiR- 



SATURDAY NIGHT THOUGHTS IN 
LENT 

An ancient people kept the night before 
their Sabbath as a time of preparation for 
the following day* May it not be helpful 
for us to follow their example during the 
coming season of Lent, and take time on 
Saturday nights to prepare for the Lord's 
day? 

Let us consider for a few moments in 
the quiet of this evening the relation of a 
loving father to an obedient affectionate 
child, and this will help us to understand 
the relation of our Heavenly Father to 
us. The child has confidence in his father, 
tells him all that happens, makes him his 
hero, is proud of him, tells other boys about 
him, and wants them to know him. His 
ambition is to be like his father. The 
father advises, directs, and with love 
reproves his son. There is sympathy and 
understanding between them beautiful to 
see, which brings contentment and happi- 
ness to both. 

1 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

This outlines the relation that should 
exist between our Heavenly Father and us 
His children. It should be a relation of 
mutual trust and confidence. We should 
go to our Heavenly Father with all the 
events of our life, and ask His advice and 
guidance. We should speak to Him often 
and enjoy His companionship. There 
should be a bond of sympathy between 
us and our Heavenly Father that will grow 
deeper and stronger as life goes on. We 
should feel Him near to us at all times, 
knowing that we have His loving sympathy 
in trouble and sorrow, and that He will 
never leave us nor forsake us, even to the 
end of the world, and will lead us to the 
Other World, always helping us and lov- 
ing us. 

Let us to-night and to-morrow read 
about our Heavenly Father, think about 
Him, talk to Him, realizing that He is a 
kind, loving, all powerful Father, until our 
hearts are full of love to Him, and we desire 
to do what He wishes us to do, to be like 
Him, to work with Him, to tell others 
about Him, remembering that when the 
disciples asked Christ how they should 
address God, He said, when ye pray, say 
Father. 

2 



GOD'S POWER AND HIS DESIRE 

TO IMPART IT TO HIS 

CHILDREN 

Last Saturday night we considered God 
as our Heavenly Father, realizing that He 
was a loving Father, and we resolved that 
we would do what He wishes us to do. 
We know that it will be difficult to keep 
some of His commandments, and to-night 
and to-morrow let us consider the great 
help we have in doing His will. 

The Bible gives us to understand that 
man is made in God's image, and the differ- 
ence between God and man appears to be 
largely that God is perfect and has vast 
power. We see in California the great 
trees; no human hand planted them, no 
human hand nourished them, but God the 
great gardener planted them and brought 
them to perfection. We look up to the 
heavens to-night and see the multitude of 
stars and planets each revolving on its own 
orbit, each keeping on its own course, not 
touching nor interfering with each other. 
The sun goes down at night out of sight but 

3 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

we are sure it will rise again in the morning. 
These things give us some idea of God's 
power. 

There are many men and women who 
have been desperately bound down by 
wrong habits but by God's power overcame 
them and became fine and noble. We 
recall what the Apostle Paul said, " I can 
do all things through Christ which strength- 
ened me." John Gough, the great temper- 
ance lecturer, was " staggering along the 
streets of Worcester, hopeless, homeless, 
on the very verge of self-destruction. A 
kind hand is laid on his shoulder, a kind 
voice calls him by name and asks, i Why 
not sign the pledge, Mr. Gough? ' " He 
did so and became one of the greatest 
lecturers on temperance, and the means of 
leading thousands to change their lives. 

We have seen in the great war frail 
women undertake work which appeared far 
beyond their strength, and that they did 
not seem physically able to do. Still they 
went forward and did more than their 
friends believed they could do, conducting 
canteens for soldiers, being up at all hours 
of the night when trains came through 
where they were working, carrying along 
the sides of the trains heavy trays of hot 

4 



God's Power to Impart 

coffee for the soldiers within who could not 
disembark, and doing it happily and with a 
smile. When canteens were bombarded 
they spent the night in cellars, sometimes 
standing the whole night, thankful if they 
could find places to lean against the wall, 
or greatly relieved if they could carry in 
chairs on which to rest. And in hospitals 
where the wounded were crowded in they 
did the bravest work. 

We remember how the soldiers met the 
life of the camp, and dying bravely appeared 
before their Maker " Gentlemen all," 
that is, pure, true and brave. 

The power to do all this came from their 
Maker. This power He stands ready to 
impart to all His children at any hour of the 
day or night, to enable them to resist 
temptation, to keep strong, and to help 
them to make their characters like God's 
character. 

" Forgive us for so often looking on the 
limitations of our lives instead of realizing 
our limitless power in Thy power; and 
forgive us for all our incomprehensible 
slowness in making use of the power." 



THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT 

What are the fruits of the spirit? The 
Apostle Paul has told us what some of 
these are when he wrote: " The fruit of 
the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, 
self-control. ,, 

Let us consider to-night and to-morrow 
whether we have these fruits of the spirit, 
how we can get them and help others to 
have them. To have them is according to 
our Heavenly Father's wishes, for Christ 
His son has said, " Herein is my Father 
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so 
shall ye be my disciples." If we are keep- 
ing His commandments and are living in 
communion with our Heavenly Father 
these fruits will grow. We must not be 
discouraged if we do not have what we 
wish immediately, but remember that it is 
" First the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear." 

A candle may remain for years on the 
mantel and it is only when it is lit that light 
shines from it into the room and it is of 

6 






The Fruits of the Spirit 

service. Gas needs a match applied before 
it gives out a flame to light and serve. 
Electricity must have a spark before it can 
illuminate and give out its wonderful 
power. There are men and women who 
live without giving out light and service; 
they need to take the power God can give 
them and by its help shine and do service 
for God. 

There are many all around us who need 
our help. Our community needs our help, 
organized ways of doing good need our 
help, our country needs our help, and the 
world needs our help. Two things are 
especially needed at present. One is to 
provide suitable meeting places for men to 
take the place of the closed saloon, and the 
other is to urge and encourage the large 
constituency of women who have lately 
become voters to use their votes for the 
good of their country, doing their utmost 
to put only the best men into office, and 
seeing that the government is conducted 
with justice and honesty. 

Let us earnestly consider where best 
we can use the power God has given us to 
help make this world God's world. Let 
us go through life with our hands extended 
ready to help others who may stumble in 

7 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

the way, showing others how they may 
resist temptation, how they may be patient 
under trials, substituting courage for self- 
pity, how they may get rid of jealousy, 
envy, pride, irritability and all evils, and 
have Christ as their companion. 

This prayer may be helpful for us to use 
to-night and to-morrow : 

" Search me, O God, and know my heart: 
Try me, and know my thoughts : 
And see if there be any way of wicked- 
ness in me, 
And lead me in the way everlasting." 



KNOWING GOD THROUGH PRAYER 

Are we not apt to think that prayer is 
asking God for things we want? But is 
this the highest meaning of prayer? Is not 
prayer more truly communion with God, 
asking God to tell us what He wants us to 
do, to make the path of duty clear to us? 
Being willing to do what God wishes us to 
do, should we not earnestly and happily 
ask that we may know what His will is, and 
not only to know what He wishes us to do 
but to ask Him to be with us in doing it, 
and to give us help to do it? In this com- 
munion with our Heavenly Father we be- 
come acquainted with Him. 

Prayer is as certain to be heard as eating 
food is certain to sustain life. Have you 
not been assailed by a temptation, and upon 
lifting your heart in prayer, felt the force 
of the temptation lessened, so that you 
could put it from you? Or when hard, 
unjust words have been spoken, and a cry 
has been sent to God, have not, instead 
of hatred and bitterness, quiet and peace 
entered your soul? 

9 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

Have sorrow and remorse come for 
wrong acts that have injured your life or, 
more deeply sad, injured the life of another, 
yet even in the anguish, did not help come 
with the knowledge that Another mightier 
and more powerful was not failing you, but 
was walking by your side comforting you? 
For in loss and cruel loneliness, His 
sustaining love is yours; peace comes 
through speaking with Him. 

We can speak to Him at any time of day 
and night and have His help. Tennyson 
wrote : 

" Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and 
Spirit with Spirit can meet — 
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer 
than hands and f eet." 

Many, very many can testify to prayer 
answered. Through prayer they have come 
to know what God wants them to do and 
have obtained strength to carry on the 
work He has given them to do, doing it not 
sadly but joyously. 

In doing God's will, keeping His com- 
mandments, communing or talking with 
Him, He becomes " The Great Compan- 
ion " and no life can be lonely or sad with 

10 



Knowing God Through Prayer 

His companionship. A great preacher has 
written of this companionship: " I cannot 
tell you how personal this grows to me. 
He is here. He knows me, I know Him. 
It is no figure of speech. It is the reallest 
thing in the world, and every day makes it 
realler. And one wonders with delight 
what it will grow to as the years go on." 
May we learn to know by practice what this 
communion means, and the blessedness 
and inspiration of this companionship. 



u 



MIRACLES 

The Century Dictionary defines a miracle 
as " An effect in nature not attributable to 
any of the recognized operations of nature 
nor to the act of man, but indicative of 
superhuman power, and serving as a sign 
or witness thereof." Considering this 
definition together with the fact that men 
are discovering " operations of nature " 
not recognized nor known before, we re- 
alize that miracles are going on all the 
time, only we have not recognized them. 

We did not know we could telegraph 
until Morse discovered the " operations 
of nature " that accomplished this. We 
did not know that we could speak through 
a tube and our voices be heard across 
a continent until Bell discovered the 
" operations of nature " that enable us to 
do this. A sinking liner could not call for 
help in the midst of the ocean by wireless 
telegraphy, and steamers rush to its assis- 
tance saving hundreds of its passengers 
from death, until Marconi discovered the 
" operations of nature " that made this 
possible. Watts watched a simple " opera- 

12 



Miracles 

tion of nature " and learned from it to 
make the steam engine which revolution- 
ized transportation on land and sea, and 
solved many of its problems. 

When I was young we had a large 
aquarium which contained aquatic plants, 
gold fish and tadpoles. We were told that 
these tadpoles would turn into frogs, but 
having outlived the charming legend of 
Santa Claus, I kept quiet determining to 
see for myself if that statement was cor- 
rect. I watched in the light and sunshine 
of a large window these square-set tad- 
poles going up and down the aquarium, 
propelled by their flat, wriggling tails, and 
found it difficult to believe that these 
creatures could become slender, long- 
legged frogs; but one spring morning 
there on the top of a growing, aquatic plant 
sat a shiny, long-legged frog, blinking his 
eyes. I was startled and stood quite sub- 
dued, thinking, and I know in substance 
that I thought, " This has been done by 
some one." And then I thought, "It is 
God who did it," and I was awed by the 
thought of what the wonderful Heavenly 
Father could do. 

Again I remember that when years later 
my sister and I were traveling in Europe, 

13 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

the night before we left Paris for the 
United States a Frenchman called and on 
leaving gave my sister some silkworm 
eggs, saying they would make the finest of 
silkworms. My sister put the pretty, tiny, 
yellow and white eggs into a small wooden 
box, and on returning to New York put the 
box into a closet. During the long, cold 
winter the eggs were forgotten, but one 
day in spring she remembered them, and 
opening the box found several mites of 
worms, with some dead ones, and some 
eggs not hatched. Lettuce and all availa- 
ble green vegetables were given these 
mites but they would not touch them. I 
remembered my mother telling us that 
when she was young the raising of silk- 
worms was encouraged in this country, 
ladies taking up the occupation on patriotic 
principles, and that when mulberry leaves 
were not available, the leaves of the osage 
orange could be substituted. As we had a 
hedge of these bushes in our city garden 
that were just coming into leaf, some were 
immediately picked and the tiny atoms 
that were lying quiet and apparently dying 
began ravenously to eat them. Later mul- 
berry leaves procured from a nursery on 
Long Island were fed to them. 

14 



Miracles 

These little worms quickly grew into 
large caterpillars. They were placed with 
twigs of the mulberry tree in a large box, 
which was put into the conservatory open- 
ing from the library, and the first thing in 
the morning and the last at night were 
inspected and commented on. In time 
these very large caterpillars ceased to eat, 
and one was noticed to be weaving fine silk 
thread around and between the fork of a 
mulberry twig. Soon all the caterpillars 
were spinning beautiful yellow or white 
cocoons, living tombs they seemed, for we 
could see the caterpillar moving about 
inside. Then all was still, death seemed to 
reign. We would look into this large box 
of tombs as one would go into a room where 
some one lay dead, feeling that all life must 
be over. One morning a shout came from 
the conservatory that a cocoon was open- 
ing. A beautiful white moth, struggling 
hard to emerge through an opening it had 
made in the cocoon, worked his way out and 
in a few days one by one the cocoons were 
opened, and the big box was filled with 
moths. I stood at its side as I had stood 
as a little girl by our aquarium and said, 
i i It is God who has done this." 

And so it was when reading the miracles 

15 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

in the Bible, it was not difficult to believe 
them for I said, " I too have seen miracles; 
they are going on all the time about us, 
only we do not recognize them." Do not 
these wonders and the miracles in the 
Bible serve u as a sign of a superhuman 
power " constantly working for us? May 
it not be well for us to carefully observe 
the works of nature and to help children to 
observe them and to realize that these 
are God's work? We are comforted when 
we realize that God is not far off, but that 
He is here working constantly for His 
children. May it not be that in these mani- 
festations God is showing us His power, 
and should we not more fully realize that 
He is ready at all times to communicate 
this power to His children to help them to 
do right? 



316 



COURAGE 

There are two kinds of courage, one is 
physical and the other is moral. Both 
are good and are to be desired, and we 
should have both. 

We need courage on awaking each morn- 
ing to meet the duties of the home life, the 
temptations, the cares and the sorrows of 
the day. Sometimes we take these up with 
a heavy, sad heart; nerves may not be 
strong, and a dread hangs over us that we 
will not be able to do what is required of 
us. May not the words of the English 
writer, Arthur Benson, help us? " In old 
days, if I had a disagreeable engagement 
ahead of me, something to which I looked 
forward with anxiety or dislike, I used 
to find that it poisoned my cup. Now 
it is beginning to be the other way; and 
I find myself with a heightened sense 
of pleasure in the quiet and peaceful days 
that have to intervene before the fateful 
morning dawns. I used to awake in the 
morning on the days that were still my 
own before the day which I dreaded, and 
begin, in that agitated mood which used to 

17 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

accompany the return of consciousness 
after sleep, when the mind is alert but 
unbalanced, to anticipate the thing I feared, 
and feel that I could not face it. Now I 
tend to awake and say to myself, i Well, at 
any rate I have still to-day in my own 
hands ' ; and then the very day itself has 
an increased value from the feeling that 
the uncomfortable experience lies ahead. " 
It is also well to recall these lines : 

" Build a little fence of trust around to-day, 
Fill the space with loving deeds, and 

therein stay, 
Look not through the sheltering bars 

upon to-morrow, 
God will help thee bear what comes, of 

joy or sorrow." 

These most helpful thoughts give us 
courage to undertake each duty of the day 
calmly and quietly, for "As thy days so 
shall thy strength be," and night shuts 
down upon us with the knowledge that 
with God's help we have done what was 
required of us well. An Eastern monarch 
demanded a motto which should enable 
him to bear prosperity with moderation, 
and adversity with fortitude and was given, 
" This, too, will soon pass over." 

18 



Courage 

We need courage when temptations 
come to resist them; to resist the tempta- 
tion to exaggerate in story and in state- 
ment before it becomes a habit, and we 
become untrustworthy. There comes the 
temptation not to tell the whole truth, for 
if we do we will be blamed. Or we colour 
our statements and the truth is not seen. 
These half truths are mean, cowardly 
things, they hurt our souls. Lowell has 
written of truth : 

" Those love her best who to themselves 
are true, 
And what they dare to dream of, dare to 
do." 

Henry Dwight Sedgwick writes of young 
Colonel Charles Russell Lowell who was 
killed in the Civil War and who had both 
physical and moral courage: " While 
Lowell lay stretched on a table, just before 
his death, paralyzed from the shoulders 
down, one of his officers was lying near 
him, dying, and oppressed by the agony of 
death. Lowell said to him, i I have always 
been able to count on you, you were always 
brave. Now you must meet this as you 
have the other trials — be steady — I 
count on you.' In the presence of death he 

19 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

shared with his comrade his own courage." 
Many an invalid is a blessing to her 
family; her patient, courageous life has 
inspired the lives of others, and the love 
poured out has brought rich returns to the 
giver. 

Courage is needed to fight the enemies 
in our own country, who by stealing from 
their country's treasury, and in other ways, 
are injuring her. We need courage to cor- 
rect the faults in our churches, first by 
living nobly ourselves, shining for God in 
our own places. We need courage to face 
our faults and our sins, to determine us to 
get rid of them and to profit by the lessons 
to be learned from them, then in God's 
strength to go forward to meet the diffi- 
culties of life, not worrying over the past. 
Courage is needed to live with people who 
are not sympathetic with us, who are uncon- 
genial. Courage is needed to bear bravely 
untruthful accusations against us, some 
so wide-spread and difficult to correct that 
they must be borne a lifetime. If another 
is slandered we must not remain quiet 
and let it pass, but correct it and do for 
others what we would want them to do for 
us. If we have made mistakes, if we have 
sinned, and friends do not trust us, then 

20 



Courage 

infinite courage is needed to reconstruct 
our lives. Courage is needed when we 
decide on a course of action that we believe 
to be right to steadily hold to it. 

We recall the poem telling of courage in 
the trenches : 

" There is a Light wher'er I go, 

There is a Splendor where I wait. 
Though all around be desolate, 
Warm on my eyes I feel the glow. 

The fight is long, the triumph slow, 
Yet shall my soul stand strong and 
straight; 

There is a Light wher'er I go, 

There is a Splendor where I wait." 



21 



THE NIGHT BEFORE GOOD 
FRIDAY 

To-morrow we will commemorate an 
event in Christ's life that proves His great 
love for us. He said while on this earth, 
" Greater love hath no man than this, that 
a man lay down his life for his friends, " 
and that is what Christ did for us. In 
coming to this world Christ helped us in 
many ways. He manifested or proved to 
us what God really is. The world appears 
to have thought of God as severe and 
ready to punish at the slightest provocation, 
but Christ who was like His Father showed 
us by His life and death that God was a 
loving, kind Father ready to forgive all who 
repented of their sins. In living among us 
Christ showed us by His life how we must 
live and how to make our characters like 
His character, and then He showed His 
great unselfish love for us by suffering 
death on the cross. 

God forgives to the uttermost. An an- 
cient prophet has said, " Though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as 
snow." Our sins weigh upon us like heavy 

22 



The Night Before Good Friday 

chains around our necks. It is wrong and 
deeply sad that we have sinned, but our 
Heavenly Father will help us to bear the 
burden. Let us ask Him to do this. 

Do not be afraid to go to Him. " He 
pities those who fear Him." He is longing 
and waiting for us to come to Him. No 
earthly father or mother can rejoice over a 
child who has strayed far from his home 
and returned as God rejoices. Earthly 
parents do not say, " Some one must be 
found to bear the punishment of your sins 
before I can forgive you." When the 
prodigal son, who had wasted all his sub- 
stance in riotous living returned repentant 
to his father's home, his father seeing him 
coming afar off ran to meet him and fell on 
his neck and kissed him saying, " This my 
son was dead, and is alive again; he was 
lost and is found." 

Our Heavenly Father is watching for our 
return from wrong doing. If we return to 
Him repentant He will take us in His 
embrace and welcome us home and " joy 
shall be in heaven " over our return. Let 
us go to Him repenting and give Him this 
joy, and let us get the peace in our hearts 
which will come from this. Should not 
His love determine us with the deepest 

23 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

determination to sin no more, to keep our 
hand in His hand, looking up to Him for 
help? 

" Repentance is to leave the sins we loved 
before, 
And show that we in earnest are by doing 
them no more." 

Christ by His death teaches us the law 
of sacrifice, the entering into the lives of 
others with love as He did, the bearing of 
others' burdens. In His anguish on the 
cross He did not think of Himself. He 
prayed for those who brought about His 
death, " Father, forgive them; for they 
know not what they do." For His mother 
He gave loving thought, commending her 
to the care of His beloved disciple and 
friend, who was to be a son in His place. 

No words of ours can repay His love, 
but there is a way for we remember that 
He said, " If a man love me, he will keep 
my word: and my Father will love him, 
and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." And He has made this 
way easy in promising, "I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." 
It encourages us in our trials to remember 

24 



The Night Before Good Friday 

that although under the shadow of 
approaching death on the cross he could 
say, " My peace I give unto you." We 
too may have this peace if we live in His 
companionship and like Him are lovingly, 
helpfully, sacrificing ourselves for others. 
May we determine to-night that we will 
have this peace, and that we will be better 
and nobler this coming year than ever 
before. 



25 



THE NIGHT BEFORE EASTER 

Two nights ago we considered Christ's 
death and how in it He showed His great 
love for us, and to-night as we consider 
His resurrection we realize another token 
of His love for us in His rising from the 
dead, and we have the happiness of re- 
alizing that our resurrection is sure. 

On the Friday when our Lord's body had 
been taken down from the cross, Joseph of 
Arimathea laid it in his own tomb which he 
had hewn out of the rock in a garden. As 
the two Marys came to this sepulchre they 
found the stone that closed the sepulchre 
rolled away and saw two angels sitting, one 
at the head and another at the feet where 
the body of Christ had lain. Wondering 
who had taken away their Lord they turned 
away, and Mary, meeting someone whom 
she supposed to be the gardener, asked 
him if he had taken Him away where he 
had laid Him. Christ's reply, " Mary," 
must have been full of love, and probably 
with some sorrow in the tones, sorrow 

26 



The Night Before Easter 

because she had not believed His words 
that He would rise again. Mary's heart 
was full of joy as she hastened to tell His 
disciples that their Leader and beloved 
Friend had risen. 

After this He appeared several times to 
different disciples. One of these occasions 
was in Galilee at the Sea of Tiberias. It 
was in the quiet of the morning and as He 
stood on the shore of the lake, the tired 
disciples were coming in after a night of 
unsuccessful fishing. He called to them, 
" Children, have ye any meat? " and as 
they came toward the shore they saw the 
blue smoke of a fire ascending and Jesus 
standing by. How their hearts must have 
been moved! There was their Leader 
whom they had lived with and followed 
from city to city, whom they had professed 
to love, but whom in His hour of agony and 
death they had forsaken and fled from, 
leaving Him without their support and com- 
fort. We also remember that Peter was 
with them, who had said, " Although all 
shall be offended, yet will not I," and then 
had denied Christ three times and with 
oaths declared he never knew Him. 

Jesus gave them no formal welcome but 
with love He had prepared what tired, dis- 

27 



Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

couraged, hungry men needed, and had 
ready a fire to warm them with " fish laid 
thereon, and bread," and with welcome in 
His voice He said, " Come and dine." 
There was no word of reproach in the wel- 
come. After they had eaten He said more 
than once to Peter, " Lovest thou me?" 
and vacillating Peter became henceforth 
as firm as his name indicates, a rock. 
Could we have treated friends who forsook 
and left us to die as Jesus met those who 
had forsaken Him and fled, leaving Him 
to the cruel death on the cross? 

Inspired by Christ's love and example 
the disciples went everywhere telling of the 
resurrection. Men who had only partially 
believed in it rejoiced, and many joined His 
disciples in becoming Christ's followers. 
Let us not forget His command, " Follow 
thou me," and to pray to Him and call Him 
" Father." 

We make too much of creeds and dog- 
matic statements of beliefs. Facts about 
some of them are not clear, and wise and 
good men differ in interpreting them. Too 
much dwelling on them separates Christ's 
followers. What is essential for true Chris- 
tian living is stated constantly in the 
Bible, and Micah has made this very clear 

28 



The Night Before Easter 

when he said, " What doth the Lord 
require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
love mercy, and to walk in reverent com- 
panionship with thy God? " This world is 
only one of God's homes, and when the 
body is worn out here there comes a 
change and we drop this worn-out body 
and pass into the Other Home, which our 
Heavenly Father has been preparing for 
us, perhaps with the help of our friends 
who have gone before. It is told of a little 
boy who soon passed to the Heavenly Home 
that he said, "I would like to go to the 
evening star and have plenty of flowers 
planted when Mother comes." 

Each one takes with him to Heaven the 
noble traits of his character. These are 
immortal. Let us cultivate these, do what 
God wants us to do and thus in His com- 
panionship we will begin Heaven here. 
If keeping God's commandments becomes 
a habit, less and less do we wish to disobey 
them, more and more grows the desire to 
do God's will as it is done in Heaven. 
Do not let us worry because we accomplish 
so little, let us remember that this is God's 
world. He is carrying on His plans here. 
Let us do all we can to help, and nothing 
to hinder, leaving the rest to Him ; remem- 

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Saturday Night Thoughts in Lent 

bering that He said, "Fear not, little 
flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom." We are follow- 
ing a Leader who will surely bring us to 
victory. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




